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The Definition and Processing of Irony

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The Definition and Processing of Irony The definiTion and processing of irony by svend Østergaard can we give a definition of irony? from the point of view of cognitive linguistics, the category of ironic utterances is fuzzy, and therefore a semantic definition cannot be provided. This paper argues for a minimal pragmatic definition.i rony is defined as an insincere statement, where the speaker intends the listener to perceive it as insincere and where the statement constitutes a misfit with some aspect of the con- text. The processing of irony depends on a conflict between a contextual meaning and a salient, but contextually inappropriate meaning. The processing will depend on the equilibrium between the two sources of meaning. if the contextual meaning is strong, the irony of the statement will be easy to access; however, if the contextual meaning is weak, the salient meaning of the statement will be foregrounded and the ironic meaning will be more difficult to access. 1. Introduction With the term irony we refer to many different types of verbal ex- pressions, but also to situations that are not necessarily expressed verbally. irony is therefore not a unitary phenomenon. for instance, in a narrative the protagonist can utter a sentence that is ironic; this is called verbal irony. however, the sequence of events that unfold in the narrative can itself be called ironic relative to the protagonist. in the first case, the protagonist utters a sentence (performs a speech act) which is insincere; for example, it might mean the opposite of what she considers as the veridical situation. in the latter case, the protagonist acts in view of a goal, but in the situation there are 449 svend østergaard the definition and processing of irony circumstances which, unknown to the protagonist, cause her acts a cognitive approach to irony will proceed from the following as- to have the opposite effect. There is a schematic similarity between sumptions: the two cases, since in both of them, the act of the protagonist is negated by the veridical situation; but there is also a big difference, 1) irony is not primarily a rhetorical device or a literary technique; since the discrepancy between the act and the veridical situation is it is found in ordinary language with a relatively high frequency. in intended in the verbal case, but not in the non-verbal case. in fact, the corpus studied in Tannen (1984), irony was found in 8% of all in the verbal case it is exactly the intended mismatch between the turns; in gibbs' (2000) study, it was found in 7% of all turns. in veridical situation (as seen by the speaker) and the meaning of the many cases, a sentence is understood as ironic without this being the utterance that qualifies it as ironic, whereas in the ironic event it is intention (gibbs and o'Brien 1991). conversely, the meaning of a the unintended mismatch that makes up the irony. sentence is often understood without the sentence being recognized as ironic. all of this points to irony as an integrated part of human This amounts to saying that, in accordance with the general theory of communication which works implicitly and automatically. The stud- categorization developed in cognitive linguistics, cf. Lakoff (1987), ies mentioned above show that irony is used in talk among friends the term irony denotes a category with a heterogeneous structure. to establish group membership by commenting on individuals who The difference depicted above holds true at least as regards ironic are not group members. The case of irony is a bit like what Lakoff events versus ironic discourse, but even if we restrict ourselves to and Johnson (1980, 1999) found concerning metaphor. Metaphor verbal irony, there is no reason to believe that the category of ironic is not (just) a rhetorical figure found in literary texts; it is used in utterances has a uniform structure, as assumed in many analyses of ordinary language all the time and it is processed without necessar- irony, such as those offered by Brown and Levinson (1978: 226) ily being recognized as a metaphor. however, there is also a crucial and searle (1979), who suggest that irony is understood by assum- difference, because the cognitive ability to think in metaphors (and ing the opposite of the sentence's literal meaning. in sperber and metonymy) is a necessary condition for language use; without these Wilson (1981), it is claimed that an ironic statement is like an echo two operations, the lexicon would explode and put too big a load reminding the listener of a similar statement which on a previous on the semantic memory. irony, on the other hand, is a pragmatic occasion, has been or could have been uttered; through the echoic operator with no influence on the structure of language. form, the speaker expresses her attitude towards the situation. in clark and gerrig (1984), verbal irony involves pretense, meaning 2) This then raises the question, what is the pragmatics of irony? that the speaker of an ironic sentence pretends to be some other again, it is probably not possible to give a unique definition of person proclaiming the utterance to an unknown audience. Kumon- the pragmatic effects of irony. in the literature, we find different – nakamura et al. (1995) make the claim that ironic remarks have an sometimes contradictory – claims about irony which, however, can effect by alluding to a failed expectation. Many theories on irony all be true. for instance, some argue that irony makes a negative argue that the phenomenon can be defined through necessary and meaning less rude (dews et al. 1995), whereas others suggest that sufficient conditions, but in so far as we are talking about semantic ironic statements are more rude than literal statements (colston conditions, this seems not to be a fruitful approach. 1997). interestingly, ivanko and pexman (2003) hypothesize that 450 451 svend østergaard the definition and processing of irony in a strongly negative context, an ironic statement is considered 2. Ironic meaning as the opposite of literal meaning more mocking and less polite than a literal statement, whereas in a slightly negative context the opposite is true. We will return to this according to the classical definition of irony, an ironic statement study in more detail below. is a figure of speech which conveys the opposite of the meaning it expresses verbally; the prototypical case would be someone saying, There are also competing theories about the social function of irony, What a lovely weather, when in fact it is pouring down. The problem considering it to be either a source of affiliation or of conflict between with this definition is that it is easy to come up with counterex- individuals. such competing view do not constitute a problem for amples, because in many cases it is not clear what the opposite of a cognitive approach to irony, since there is no reason to assume the literal meaning is. for instance, if someone says Thanks in an that irony is a unitary phenomenon that can be described using a ironic way, the meaning is not No thanks or, It is not the case that I single set of necessary and sufficient conditions. in fact, it might thank you, but rather, You have done something for which you do not even be unclear whether a given sentence is meant to be ironic or deserve gratitude. not. for instance, the first sentence in the following text – taken from a homepage on tennis – might be considered ironic, but will There seems to be classes of ironic statements where the ironic probably not be recognized as such by the majority of readers: meaning cannot be expressed by its opposite. for instance, the meaning of ironic understatements can never be the opposite of the Maybe it wasn't as warm as it appeared. The seven-timer oland statement: It seems to be raining, when it is pouring down, obviously garros champion had made a point of blaming his slow start does not mean It does not seem to be raining. ironic expressive forms in his opening two rounds firmly on the cold conditions; yet like Thanks never convey the opposite meaning. The same is true of here he was, once again bogged down in another long first set ironic questions like, Is it possible for you to arrive in time just once? despite the agreeable mid-afternoon temperatures. Wilson and sperber (1992) mention ironic quotations as examples; for instance, if someone in a cold, wet english spring says, Oh to be if we claim that irony is pragmatically motivated (haverkate 1990), in England now that April's there (a quotation from robert Brown- it follows that it is not conceptual, i.e. we cannot give a semantic ing), the meaning is not a desire to be in england, but to express description of irony. in this regard, irony also differs from metaphors, (contrary to Browning's feeling) that the english spring does not which rely on conceptual mappings between semantic domains always live up to expectation. furthermore, sentences where the (Lakoff and Johnson 1999). still, there are cases where we can say irony is directed toward presupposed meaning also fall outside the that irony is motivated by general principles of how information is classical definition (cf. haverkate 1990). for instance, Jane has presented; this will also be discussed below. stopped organizing her exciting parties, where exciting is ironic. The presupposition is that Jane has previously been organizing parties and now she does not. The meaning can therefore not be rendered by the negation Jane has not stopped organizing her exciting parties. so there is a host of different types of ironic expressions that cannot 452 453 svend østergaard the definition and processing of irony be described by assuming that the intended meaning is the opposite about the situation.
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